Friday, July 18, 2008

Cabbage Salad with Lime and Fresh Oregano, and a side of Big News!

Our new apartment is coming together slowly but surely. Merging two people and all their respective stuff into one apartment and a shared life is quite a project. I am loving living in a spacious apartment with hardwood floors and walls painted lovely colors. I am also really digging the endless cabinet and counter space in our new kitchen (still unpainted and far from ready for a photo op!) New Jersey life is treating me pretty well, considering how ill-suited I am to suburbia.

I have a piece of news that I am sharing with some butterflies in my stomach:

I got accepted to the school I applied to, to become a Nutrition & Food Science major with a concentration in Dietetics! It's an ADA-approved program to set me on track to becoming, G-d willing, a Registered Dietitian. I am pretty darn scared but also very excited. Gonna be a full-time student for the first time in many years. It'll be an intense few years 'til I finish my degree, let me tell you. Anatomy & physiology, organic chemistry and microbiology, oh my.

It was 96 degrees today and our air conditioner is/was broken. It's been repaired but is taking a long time to get our second-floor-and-right-above-a-pizza-place apartment back to a bearable temperature. So I decided to do minimal cooking.

It's hot, my back hurts, and my partner is on the South Beach Diet. So this is tonight's menu for a laid-back shabbos (sabbath) for just the two of us:

Ground turkey tacos on corn tortillas, with black beans, homemade salsa fresca, fresh guacamole and dairy-free/pareve sour cream (Tofutti, since there's no time to make it from scratch).

A delicious looking Rioja wine from the fantastic kosher wine section at the ShopRite liquor store in Englewood.

Cabbage salad made from the hugest cabbage I've ever seen.

Sugar-free ice pops.

Nothing fancy. For tomorrow's lunch we'll have salad with quinoa topped with roasted beets and carrots, and some feta cheese.

Here's a recipe for the cabbage salad I made. It's a quick, light, no-cooking recipe with lots of flavor. A great crunchy topping for tacos or a side dish for any meal, especially a spicy summer meal. It's not so different from the curtido de repollo I posted as a topping for homemade pupusas, but I made some alterations that give it its own crunchy identity. Like most cabbage salads, it should get tastier by the day so I made enough that my partner will be able to take some with her to work on Monday for lunch.

The picture above is of the cabbage I used, which is the biggest cabbage I've ever seen. I picked up for $1.50 at the Englewood Farmer's Market today from a local farmer. Good grief, this thing is huge! I don't know if the picture really conveys its hugeness, but I took this pic to show how half the cabbage filled up the biggest, gigantic-est tupperware we have. It was about twice the size of my head, and will easily feed us for two weeks. To be realistic, I've called for one medium cabbage in this recipe, even though in my case it was really 1/2 a mutant cabbage.

Mix all liquid ingredients and spices (except fresh oregano) in a small container. In a large bowl, combine cabbage, carrots, and oregano. Drizzle the liquid/spice combination on top of the vegetables, mixing frequently. Cover and refrigerate for 2-4 hours before serving cold or at room temperature.

27 comments:

Great blog! I have also been trying to eat gluten free this year in an attempt to be candida free. (Lots of headaches and sinus issues). I use apple cider vinegar and have gotten very savvy with my spices (cumin, cinnamon). It's good to see nice recipes using cabbage. I never use it but will make an effort and try this one! I'm a Canadian but living in Ghana, West Africa for the past 12 years - so it's not always easy to get the ingredients needed...

First comment, love the blog. Congrats on starting on the path to becoming an RD. More dietitians need to be aware of GF nutrition needs. Dietetics programs require lots of sciences and statistics, but you'll do fine. :)

Congrats on your acceptance, please let us all know how it goes! How exciting :) I am pondering doing some herbalist/ND certification, so I know adding more schooling to your plate is always a daunting thought! Your recipe here (and always) rock and really highlight your push for health. I'm so happy for you!good luck

So happy to hear all your good news! What a perfect opportunity for you and how nice to have a great new kitchen where you can play! Glad to hear that all the parts of your life are meshing together so well.

Congrats on the RD school. I have also thought about it as I know there is a need for GF-knowledgable RD's.

And on the recipe front, it was awesome, thanks! I had a partial head of cabbage and made the full amount of dressing so that was a bit much - I wasn't thinking - but the flavors were still great! I have been trying to get us to eat more cabbage and stuff so this is a keeper! Thanks!

Thanks for all the comments and well wishes, guys! I appreciate it so much. Renee - Did you have enough left over to try it the next day? We found it was even better the next day... and the next... and the next :)

Go, BTB, go! I absolutely love the dieticians who've tried our funky diets themselves - they really, truly understand where the diet can fail to satisfy, insist on extra time and effort. Those women (never met a guy in that dept.) really, truly support while they educate.

Congrats on your future career! That's terrific news. Your new place sounds great- we've just moved into a loft apartment and are thrilled with it. We actually have a "grown-up" kitchen for once, haha- pantry and all! This recipe looks very tasty, and it's nice to hear an update.

In my own opinion, you didn't need schooling to create great dishes though. You always have some really nice recipes on here. But, I am sure you'll enjoy the schooling and amaze us all with even more wonderful foods. Enjoy!